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which wears perhaps the most perfect disguise is the Onychocerus scorpio. This beetle is common in South America, and was found abundantly by Mr. Bates on the banks of the Amazon, but always clinging to the rough bark of one kind of tree, called by the natives Tapiribà. This bark was so closely imitated by the beetle itself,—its elytra and thorax being tubercled and coloured so as exactly to match it, and the insect clinging so closely as to form, apparently, one surface with the tree, that Mr. Bates assures me it was often absolutely impossible to detect it by the closest inspection as long as it remained motionless!

Many of the Tiger beetles, although they are such conspicuous and beautiful objects in our cabinets, are well disguised when in their natural stations. Our commonest species, Cicindela campestris, is fond of grassy banks, where its green colour makes it difficult to see it. Cicindela maritima is almost exactly the same colour as the sandy shores it haunts. The large Cicindela heros frequents the mountainous forests of Celebes, where its brown colour exactly matches with the dead leaves that cover the ground. The magnificent velvety-green Cicindela gloriosa was captured only on wet mosscovered rocks in the bed of a mountain torrent in the island of Celebes, where it was very difficult to see it. The pale-coloured Cicindela Durvillei was found on coral sand of almost exactly its own colour; and I noticed generally that, whatever the colour of the sand or the soil, the common Tiger beetles of the locality were of the same hue. A most remarkable instance of this was a species which I found only on the glistening, slimy mud of salt marshes, the colour and shine of which it matched so exactly that at a few yards' distance I could only detect it by the shadow it cast when the sun shone!

Several Buprestide of the genus Corcbus resemble the dung of birds freshly dropped on leaves, and I have often been puzzled to determine whether what I saw was worth picking up or not. Mr. Bates tells us that Chlamys pilula cannot be distinguished from the dung of caterpillars. Our own Onthophilus sulcatus is very like the seed of an umbelliferous plant, and the common Pill beetle (Byrrhus pilula) would be taken for anything rather than an insect.

We must now turn to the Orthopterous insects, which contain some of the most surprising cases of disguise yet discovered. The true Walking Leaf has been already described at the commencement of this article, but there are other insects of a quite different structure which almost equally resemble leaves, as shown by the names given to them by the old writers; such as Locusta citrifolia, L. laurifolia, L. myrtifolia, &c. Acrydium gallinaceum, from the Malay Archipelago, has an immense erect leaf-like thorax; A. platypterum has wings like the most beautiful smooth green leaves; while A. gibbosum is like

a little shapeless lump of mud or stick. The voracious Mantidæ are often concealed in a similar manner. Many have the thorax broadly dilated, and, with the wing-covers, coloured like a dead or a green leaf; and one has large brown legs and small wings, so that it looks more like a cluster of bits of stick and withered leaves than a living insect.

Fig. 197. Stick Insect.

The true Phasmidæ, or Stick-insects, are the most curious, perhaps, of all, and they are much more abundant in the eastern forests than the Leafinsects. They vary from a few inches to a foot long, and are almost always of the colour and shape of pieces of stick, the legs forming the branches. One of the most curious facts connected with them is that they seem to know that if they rested in the symmetrical attitudes in which they are always drawn, with their legs spread out uniformly on each

side, they would soon be detected. They are accordingly found stretched out motionless in the most unsymmetrical manner possible-one leg out on one side, and two on the other, for example, the remaining legs fitting so closely to the body that they appear to form one piece with it. They lay generally across leaves and twigs, as if they had accidentally fallen there from some dry branch overhead; and so impossible is it to detect them by the eye that I used to make it a practice, when walking along in the forests, to touch every suspicious bit of dead stick I saw loose on the foliage, as the only means of finding out whether they were real sticks or Stickinsects. Sometimes they are exactly the colour of lichen-covered branches, and are covered with little foliaceous expansions. One that inhabits the swampy forests of Borneo has these of a beautiful olive-green colour, so as exactly to resemble a creeping moss or jungermannia; and the Dyak who brought it me assured me it was very curious, for he had never before seen an insect grown all over with moss while alive! I was quite as much astonished as he was, for I could hardly believe my eyes, and it was only after close and repeated examination that I could convince myself it was not a real plant that covered the animal. This insect loses all its beauty when dried, and it has been very poorly figured by the Dutch naturalists, and very inappropriately named Ceroxylus laceratus, from its torn and shaggy appearance in the preserved specimens.

In the deserts of Egypt are some curious Mantidæ which are so exactly the colour of the soil they live upon that the closest inspection can scarcely detect them. It is even stated that where the soil changes from brown to white or yellow in a few yards' distance, the insects change also, and always correspond in colour to their habitation. The caterpillar of a European moth, Bryophila algæ, is said to change in a similar manner, being yellow when found on the yellow Lichen juniperinus, but grey when on the grey Lichen saxatilis. In this case, however, the food may probably produce the change of colour, as it is known to do in some other larvæ. Some cases more to the point have been observed by our artist, Mr. T. W. Wood. He states that the chrysalis of the common Tortoiseshell butterfly is of a very different colour according to its position. When attached to a nettle, it is of a golden colour; when on a wall or fence, mottled grey; and when on a tarred paling, nearly black. Once he placed some larvæ of the Swallow-tailed butterfly in chip boxes, where they changed into chrysalids; but, strange to say, instead of being green or dusky, as they usually are, they were of exactly the same colour as the inside of the box, without any marking whatever. Some of them produced very fine butterflies, which shows that they were healthy.

These curious facts prove that we have yet much to learn as to the causes which determine the colours of animals, and it is to be wished that a few of our young naturalists would experiment on some of our commonest insects, rearing them from the egg exposed to the influence of differently coloured objects and carefully registering the result. In this article I have only been able to call attention to some curious facts in the colouring of insects, and more especially to the disguises which serve to protect them from their enemies, or enable them more easily to entrap their prey. Such of my readers as may wish to know more of this subject, and may desire to learn how these strange modifications of form and colour have probably arisen, are referred to an article in the Westminster Review for July last, on "Mimicry, and other Protective Resemblances among Animals," in which the most recent views of Mr. Darwin's disciples are fully explained.

IN

PRIMEVAL BRITAIN.

N the April number of SCIENCE-GOSSIP there appeared a very interesting extract from Campbell's "Frost and Fire," treating of a legend recorded in the Gaelic poems of Ossian, and in the folk-lore of the Irish, Welsh, and Highlanders. This story asserts that in Ancient Britain, in the days of Fionn, and in the "Feinne" (which may be taken to mean, I suppose, the dynasty which he founded or the domain over which he and his posterity ruled), there lived men and animals of gigantic stature. This curious tradition, like most others, is probably founded on a truth which, when discovered, might greatly increase our knowledge of the early history of our race and land.

While Mr. Campbell quite sees reason, from the remains of large fossil animals which have been discovered in this country, to believe the latter part of the legend, he finds the former part, viz., the supposition of a gigantic race of men, incredible. Now it has occurred to me that the very name of the monarch under whom this state of things prevailed is the key to the enigma. Surely this Fionn is no other than the personage to whom almost all the old Erse legends relate, viz., Farsaidh, FiniusaFarsa, or Phenius the Sage-the personification, in fact, of the rule of the Tyrian (Phenician) traders, whose attainments must have appeared so wonderful and gigantic (to use a material comparison) to the native Irish. It is well known that uncivilized nations regard those who have attained more knowledge than themselves as giants in intellect; and it is perfectly comprehensible how this reverence for superior intellectual power should become changed in time into an actual belief in their superior stature. In the sense of "learned" or "gifted" man, the word "giant" is frequently used in Scripture. If

however, a literal interpretation of the word "giant” should be insisted on, it is not at all impossible to conceive that the gigantic races of Canaan-the Emin and Anakim-took service with the Phenicians as mercenaries, in the same way as Goliah and his family appear to have been employed by the Philistines.

The Greek geographers relate that Carthaginian artificers and husbandmen left the Punic colonies in Northern Spain to settle in Ireland; and this immigration into that country must have been carried on to a large extent, to affect, as it has done, the native language; for modern Erse is nearly pure Punic. The native legends attribute the first colonization of Ireland to three fishermen from Northern Spain; and it may be that this is true, since Rennell's Current, a branch of the Gulf Stream, runs directly❘ from Biscay to Cape Clear. The Irish bards embodied in their songs a tradition that part of the country was once in the possession of settlers called "Phenies," who came from Spain; and it is thus owing to the dim recollection of the glories of the colonial empire of Carthage that the modern Irish rebels took the name of "Fenians." St. Jerome says that "Poenus," a Carthaginian, is clearly derived from the term "Phenician."

When we proceed to examine the attributes ascribed to this Phoenius by the Irish traditions, we discover that they strikingly coincide with the known characteristics of the Phenicians. For instance, he is said to have loved learning, invented the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alphabets, and to have held commercial dealings with Syria and Africa. The Phenician race had its two capital cities in Syria and Africa, was the most commercial one on the face of the earth, the reputed inventor of letters, and probably, from its wide dealings, greatly skilled in philology. Even in dress and personal appearance, the likeness between the Irish and the inhabitants of Northern Spain is most marked at the present day. The red cloaks of the women and the variegated plaids of the men, which the Irish formerly wore and the Gael still wear, are the usual articles of dress in Northern Spain. Probably at the time when Ireland was thus occupied by the Phenician colonists, the gigantic elk, auroch, bear, and wolf were alive in the dense forests of the two islands; if not the hyena, mammoth, rhinoceros, and great cave tiger of Britain, whose bones have been found in the drift or gravel stratum at Brentford and elsewhere. This last animal was of the feline race, as large as the largest African lion or Bengal tiger-probably something between the two, like the puma, but with stronger-knit limbs. It is not necessary to suppose that the climate was much warmer when it lived here than it is now, since the tiger at the present day often follows herds of antelopes to the verge of perpetual snow in the Himalayas, and goes far into

Siberia. The large animals of the bovine species, with which our ancestors, to judge from the legends which reach us at the present day (" Guy and the dun cow," &c.), had such terrible conflicts, are nearly extinct. The auroch is only known to exist in two or three imperial forests in Lithuania and Poland; the "ox with the high promontory" of Celtic legends, probably the bison, is now confined to North America, and is being rapidly extirpated there; the indigenous wild ox only survives at Chillingham Park, in Northumberland, and at Hamilton Palace, in Lanarkshire. The wolf is the only animal, of those previously mentioned, of whose extirpation in Britain there is any record in history. The last was killed in Scotland by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel in 1680; in Ireland they survived till 1710.

The bones and antlers of the elk are found in the peat-bogs of Ireland and the Isle of Man, in excellent preservation; but we have no records of their existence in our land, even in the time of the Romans.

Nothing is more striking than the similarity between the animals and plants of Northern Europe and North America. This fact seems to point to the union of the two continents at some distant date. Mr. Murray, in his work on "The Distribution of Mammals," tells us that Shetland shows evident signs of having been once inland; and to make it so again a rise of only seventy fathoms is necessary, which would connect it with America by way of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. In North America we find the dwarfish Esquimaux, who are one and the same people with the Laplanders of Northern Europe; and in both continents we find the bison (fossil in Europe), elk, reindeer (called "cariboo" in America), beaver, polar bear, and several smaller mammals.

THAT

F. A. ALLEN.

BITTEN BY A VIPER.

THAT fatal results have followed the bite of the viper, the records of many a country surgeon's note-book, I am satisfied, would show: that death has been the immediate consequence of the bite, in all cases, I am not so certain. That constitutional and other predisposing causes, in certain cases, will render a fatal issue inevitable to some persons when so bitten, cannot be doubted; and so will these causes influence the course and termination of the effects resulting from the infliction of other injuries upon the human body; e. g., punctures from rusty nails, thorns of some shrubs, the sting of the wasp or bee, and the bite of the common flea and bed-bug, or other insects. Cases have come under my notice where severe constitutional disturbance and much local suffering and inflammation have resulted from the sting of a bee, inflicted upon the

palm of a healthy young man; and I am no stranger to the feverish excitement and severe local irritation resulting from the bites inflicted by bed-bugs in discharge of their allotted task. I destroy all such pests when they intrude upon me, and I cannot imagine that many are of Mr. Ullyett's way of thinking respecting the viper, and care to protect so obnoxious a reptile,-for, independent of his interesting cases as to the comparative harmlessness of the reptile's bite, I fancy many instances could be produced where it would be seen that the viper's bite is a malignant and a deadly one. The recollection of the following case induces me to imagine that the venom of the viper, when fairly introduced, is capable of producing death, or a very close approximation to it, to the person so injured. Some sixteen years ago, while residing in Essex, a healthy, industrious, and temperate labouring man, came under my notice, he having, some twelve or fourteen hours previously, been bitten by an adder on the dorsum of his right hand, about an inch above the first joint of the middle finger. The man's age was about 36 years, and he had enjoyed very good health for several years, not during this period being necessitated to absent himself from his daily labour. He was, when bitten, in the enjoyment of his usual good health, and he was engaged in the fields cutting some fagots or dry stubble (I forget just now exactly which), but he came upon a group of adders; one of these sprang at him, and seized his right hand, as mentioned; he shook it from him, and killed it. He sucked the wound well, but not immediately after he had rid himself of the reptile, but after he had destroyed it, so that absorption of the virus was complete. Soon after this he began to experience a sense of burning and stabbing pain in the hand; the arm also became heavy and stiff. The wound gradually assumed an angry look, while the hand became much swollen.

When I saw him he was in bed; the bitten member had been placed in a warm poultice of herbs; the man was feverish, flushed, and excited-the pulse being small and rapid, the tongue and fauces parched; he was very thirsty. A sedative was given to him, and a free but guarded supply of ammonia, with brandy, given at rather frequent intervals. A faint and bright redness was extending up the forearm, nearly to the elbow, and some marked amount of swelling also was clearly present. A large linseed poultice was applied over the entire limb, from the fingers to the elbow-joint. He passed a restless night, and next day at noon the hand and forearm were greatly swollen, the hand being mottled with green and yellow on a dusky red ground; the wound on the dorsum was sloughy, and discharged a dirtycoloured sanies. The forearm was much swollen and discoloured, but less so than the hand. Inflammatory and morbid action was extending up the arm; it was dusky-red in colour, painful, and swollen.

At times, a low form of delirium existed, and the tongue was dry and brownish. Increased attention was given to the poor fellow, and on the extension of the morbid action over the entire limb-from fingers to shoulder-several long and free incisions were made through the distended and discoloured integuments, so as to prevent sloughing of the whole, and also to give vent to the dark-coloured and fœtid sanies which had accumulated from disorganization of the cellular tissue. Much relief followed these incisions, and charcoal and other poultices gradually corrected the fœtor of the discharge; while, at intervals, considerable portions of the cellular tissue sloughed away through the openings mentioned. All this anxious period the patient required the closest attention and care; the delirium, restlessness, and tendency to collapse were combated by the rather free use of opiates, ammonia, brandy, strong beef-tea, &c., until after the lapse of ten or twelve days, when the danger, once so great, was considered as past, and a decrease in our solicitude took place.

However, some six or eight weeks were consumed before he could resume some of his duties as a farm labourer, and then only with an enfeebled limb, and one marked with distinct scars, which will ever remind him of the danger he had experienced from the bite of a viper. Against the whole tribe the man vowed vengeance.

Now, although this case of being bitten by a viper had not a fatal termination, I fancy it will not acquire any increased toleration for the reptile from those who may read its details. Had the man been less robust, or been deprived of ordinary care and attention, I fancy a fatal result would have been recorded. Supposing the reptile had bitten a child instead of the man, death would then have been certain, i.e., if we may judge from the symptoms reported.

Sir Charles Bell, I think, like to Mr. Ullyett, has expressed his belief in the non-fatal effects of the viper's bite; and while respecting Mr. Ullyett's humane motive-the protection of the creatures he studies-I must confess, from the recollection of the above case, that I should be induced to destroy the reptile whenever and wherever I might see it. It has a bad, a very bad character, and is, there is no gainsaying it, a dangerous reptile; and from some resemblance it has to the common and harmless snakes, it passes its own demerits upon its harmless and certainly useful congeners, who are accordingly sacrificed needlessly by all who believe all snakes to be, like the viper, poisonous.

FREDERICK HALL.

The writer of a very interesting article (“Bitten by a Viper") in your issue for last month, says that when he suggested that the viper's bite should be sucked or cauterized, his friend asserted the uselessness of these expedients, excepting, perhaps,

in partially alleviating the effects of the poison"Since," he said (I quote from memory), "the very first pulsation, after the bite had been inflicted, would carry a portion of the poison into the circulation." Now as the matter referred to is of considerable importance, perhaps you will permit me to say that my own experience connected with snakebites-extending over a service of sixteen years in the East Indies-does not coincide with the assertion of the above writer's friend.

I have myself treated four cases of cobra-bites among my native servants and the men of my regiment; and in all the cases I found that speedy cauterization with liquor ammonia fortior, combined with small doses of brandy at short intervals, and making the sufferer walk about for half an hour or more after treatment, always succeeded in checking bad consequences. A tourniquet was at the same time applied above the bite (in my cases all four men were bitten in the leg), and kept tightly screwed up till the caustic had done its work. It is possible that merely sucking the wound might not suffice to remove the poison (to say nothing of the risk caused through any abrasion, however slight, in the mouth of the operator); but I feel sure that the prompt use of a ligature above the wound, and the application of liquid caustic to the bite would, in almost every instance, suffice for a perfect cure-certainly in the case of a bite from a common viper, whose venom has not the activity of that of the cobra di capello.

On a person being bitten by a snake, the poison is not at once admitted into the circulation. Nature endeavours by every means to prevent its entrance into the blood. The effusion of blood, on the bite being inflicted, is an effort on her part to wash out the veins, as it were; and although in the case of acute poisons (such as that of some snakes) this effort rarely suffices to expel the whole of the offending matter, still time is thus afforded for the application of further means for its removal. It would therefore be a great mistake to refuse to aid Nature's efforts by the use of ligatures, cuppingglasses, or liquid caustic.

All animal poisons when introduced into the circulating fluid-whether the poison be that of snakebite, rabies, syphilis, &c.-have a longer or shorter period of incubation before they commence their work of destruction, and it is during this period of inactivity that means should be employed for their elimination; and I feel confident that were a man who was bitten by a venomous snake to at once tie his handkerchief or neckcloth tightly above the bite (should such be practicable), and cauterize the wound either with fire, lunar caustic, liquor ammoniæ, or any strong acid (the liquid applications being far preferable), he would, in nine cases out of ten, escape with nothing worse than the inevitable temporary shock to the system. W. S. Y.

TOADFLAXES.

September woods, September skies, so soft and sunny all! Unfaded and unfall'n your leaves, and yet so soon to fall. Ah! what avails that dying smile which gilds your fading green,

While Winter peeps, like Death, behind, to shut the farewell scene!

THE wane of the year is again upon us: the

THE

fields, cleared for the most part of their "golden grain," present a forlorn appearance; and the shortening days, as well as the gorgeous hues of the fading leaves, tell us that Autumn has indeed arrived. There is always a certain amount of sadness associated with the ingathering of the corn; we feel that the full beauty of the year has departed, and in the stubble which remains we seem to find an intimation of the coming Winter. Not that a stubble-field is, in itself, dull or gloomy; for many a bright flower, hitherto concealed by the waving corn, now appears in great force; but still there is an air of desolation about it which we cannot overlook. We must therefore study the more carefully the remaining flowers, in which almost every day marks a diminution, and may appropriately select for consideration in the present paper the British members of the pretty genus Linaria.

Fig. 198.

Fig. 199.
Toadflax, peloria form. Toadflax, normal flower.

The common Snapdragon, or Bull's - mouth (Antirrhinum majus), with its curiously-shaped blossoms of various gay colours, is a plant with which almost every one is familiar. The mouth of the curious monopetalous corolla is closed by the palate attached to the lower lip; and it is only when we press the back of the flower that it opens and discloses the four white stamens, two long and two short, which tell us that the plant belongs to the Linnean class Didynamia. The Toadflaxes, or Linariæ, much resemble the Snapdragon; indeed the above-described corolla (technically termed personate) is among British plants confined to these two genera; but the two are distinguished by the presence, in the species of Linaria, of a spur at the back of the corolla, which spur is wanting in the species of Antirrhinum.

We find, then, that our Toadflaxes agree in

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